See the zip documentation:
http://www.python.org/dev/doc/devel/lib/built-in-funcs.html

i. documentation refers to sequences not to iterables

ii. The other problem is easier to explain by example.
Let it=iter([1,2,3,4]).
What is the result of zip(*[it]*2)?
The current answer is: [(1,2),(3,4)],
but it is impossible to determine this from the docs,
which would allow [(1,3),(2,4)] instead (or indeed
other possibilities).

The example expresses the solution to an actual need,
so the behavior should be documented or warned against,
I believe.